1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, information processing method and apparatus, and an information serving medium, and more particularly, to an information processing system, information processing method and apparatus, and an information serving medium, adapted to define the structure and movement of a virtual living object in a virtual space and manage the action and character of the virtual living object.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of the so called personal computer communication service (e.g., NIFTY-Serve (trademark) in Japan, CompuServe (trademark) in USA, etc.) that a plurality of users connect their own personal computers to a host computer in a communication service center via modems and public telephone networks and access the host computer based on a predetermined communication protocol, services to provide a vial community space called xe2x80x9ccyberspacexe2x80x9d (e.g., Habitat (trademark), etc.) are known.
Note that the development of the above Habitat was started by the LucasFilm, USA, in 1985 and had been in service for about three years by the QuantumLink a commercial network in USA, and it was put into service as the Fujitsu Habitat (trademark) by the NIFTY-Serve in February, 1990. The Habitat provides a service to enable the user to send his alter ego called xe2x80x9cavatar (incarnation of a god in the Indian myth)xe2x80x9d to a virtual city called xe2x80x9cPopulopolisxe2x80x9d depicted by the 2D (two-dimensional) graphics and where the user can have a chat with the other users of the same communication service. The xe2x80x9cchatxe2x80x9d is a text-based real-time conversation in which the users can take participate by typing a line of text words and watching their display screens. Further details are referred to xe2x80x9cCyberspace: First Stepsxe2x80x9d, Michael Benedikt, ed. MIT PressCambridge, Mass. ISBNO-262-02327-X, pp. 282-307.
In the conventional cyberspace systems operated in the personal computer communication services of this type, the virtual streets lined with stores and houses and room interior are depicted by the 2D graphics and the avatar to be moved away from this side or towards this side can only be moved up and down in the background of the 2D graphics. That is, the conventional cyberspace systems cannot provide a sufficient representation of an avatar""s walking and movement in the virtual space for a virtual experience of them. Also, in the conventional cyberspace systems, a virtual space in which an avatar being an alter ego of the user and those of the other users are represented will be viewed through the third party""s eyes, so no satisfactory virtual experience cannot be assured.
To avoid the above drawbacks, it has been proposed as in the disclosure of the Japanese Unexampled Patent Publication No. 9-81781 to represent a virtual space by the 3D (three-dimensional) graphics and use a three-dimensional graphic data descriptive language called VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) to implement a fiction that the user can freely walk around with the avatar""s viewpoint. Also, various types of cyberspace in which the avatar being alter ego of the user can have a chat with the other users are considered in the Journal xe2x80x9cNikkei Electronicsxe2x80x9d, Sep. 9, 1996 (No. 670), pp. 151-159.
Recently, there have been commercially available personal computer game software such as a fish feeding simulation game, a simulation game for feeding a virtual creature having an artificial intelligence and living in a virtual space, etc. Also, there has been proposed an electronic notebook adapted for the user to display on a screen thereof a simulated pet such as a dot, cat or the like which grows up step by step and amuse himself or herself by watching the process of their growth (see the Nikkei Electronics, Jul. 4, 1997 (No. 686), pp. 131-134). Moreover, an egg-sized portable electronic pet in which a feeding simulation game software of this type is installed is widely known (under the trademark xe2x80x9cTamagocchixe2x80x9d of the Bandai).
This type of portable electronic pet uses a single-chip LSI (large scale integrated circuit) having built therein a CPU (central processing unit), a ROM in which such a feeding simulation game software is stored, a RAM, and the like, and it has also a LCD (liquid crystal display) screen on which a figure and status of a virtual pet are displayed. The user of this product operates control buttons to give commands xe2x80x9cfeedxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccleanxe2x80x9d, etc. necessary for feeding the virtual creature as a pet. As a result, the virtual creature displayed on the LCD screen will grow up changing in appearance in the process of growing from an egg step, chick step and to an adult bird step, for example.
The game software is so programmed that at each button operation by the user, the virtual creature will grow smoothly if the command from the user is appropriate while it will be sick or die if the command is not appropriate. Further, a calender timer is included in the software. Based on an elapsed time from the birth of the virtual creature, defined by the calender timer, the virtual creature will make various requests to the user. The requests include a desire for sleep when in the night time zone, request for a meal when in the mealtime zone, request for a snack, and a desired for playing at any time, for example. If the user cannot respond to such requests properly, the virtual creature will grow slow and become ill-minded. If the requests are properly satisfied by the user, the virtual creature lives a longer life.
A technique to display an image corresponding to each step of growth of an animal or plant is disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-160853, for example. This is applicable to an electronic notebook. More specifically, bit map images for various steps of growth of a plant character are stored in a ROM. At each stage of growth, a corresponding plant character is displayed on an LCD screen of the electronic notebook, and also characters of plant developing elements (water, light and fertilizer) previously stored in the ROM are displayed on the LCD screen. By key input of doses of the plan developing elements, values of the plant developing elements corresponding to the entered doses are set in water, light and fertilizer dose registers, respectively, in the RAM. Based on these values in the registers, new degree of growth is calculated and a plant character corresponding to the calculated degree of growth is read from the ROM and displayed on the LCD screen. Thus, the steps of the plant growth corresponding to the conditions of plant development entered by the user are displayed.
However, the action, structure, etc. of an object (character) in the above-mentioned virtual space are defined by the service provider and cannot freely be changed or modified by a client (user).
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an information processing system, information processing method and apparatus, and an information serving medium, adapted such that the action, structure, etc. of an object in a virtual space can freely be changed or modified by the user.
The above object can be attained by proving an information processing system in which a server and a terminal are connected to each other via a network, a virtual community space accessible from a plurality of such terminals is built, a node for interpretation of the movement of a virtual living object is provided at each of the terminals, and a management node for the virtual living object in the virtual community space is provided at the server.
Also, the above object can be attained by providing an information processing method and apparatus, in which a virtual living object is built, a terminal is connected to a server via a network, a virtual community space is built based on information supplied from the server, and the virtual living object is transmitted along with a movement interpretation node to the virtual community space.
Also, the above object can be attained by providing an information processing method and apparatus, in which a server is connected to a terminal via a network, a virtual living object built by the terminal and a movement interpretation node are received, and a management node for the virtual living object in a virtual community space is generated based on the movement interpretation node.
Also, the above object can be attained by providing an information serving medium for serving a computer program including the steps of interpreting at least the structure of a virtual living object built as a one which can be provided in a virtual community space, communicating with a master managing mechanism which manages the virtual living object in the virtual community space, and moving the built life object based on data generated by the master managing mechanism to control at least the action of the virtual living object.
In the information processing system, information processing method and apparatus and information serving medium according to the present invention a movement interpretation node for a virtual living object is provided at a terminal, and management node for the virtual living object in a virtual community space is provided at the server, thereby permitting the user to freely change or modify the movement, structure, etc. of the virtual living object.
These objects and other objects, features and advantages of the present intention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.